Global Public Transport Summit 2025 in Hamburg. Through sessions, showcases, and startup spotlights, the EU-backed community highlighted why collaboration and automation must go hand in hand to create cleaner, more resilient urban mobility systems.
Public transport remains the most effective lever for sustainable urban mobility. Yet operators and cities often face barriers: limited R&D capacity, fragmented procurement processes, and pressure to maintain daily services leave little room to test new ideas. EIT Urban Mobility addresses this through agile pilots, regulatory sandboxes, and co-creation programmes that allow public actors to experiment with low-risk, high-impact solutions.
For instance, the City of Munich partnered with EIT Urban Mobility’s RAPTOR programme to gain better insights into citizens’ mobility patterns. The winning solution from Swiss startup Transcality created a multimodal digital twin to be integrated with the city’s transport system, offering real-time insights for smarter planning.
Cities also face mounting pressure to meet climate targets but often lack the resources or tools to move from strategy to execution. EIT Urban Mobility supports implementation through hands-on pilots, data-informed policymaking, peer learning, and capacity-building workshops. These interventions help cities accelerate their mobility plans while bridging funding and knowledge gaps.
Startups and SMEs, on the other hand, often struggle to validate their innovations in real-world settings or navigate public sector procurement. EIT Urban Mobility connects them with cities and operators, enabling pilots and partnerships that put their solutions to the test and on the map.
Five standout ventures supported by EIT Urban Mobility showcased their solutions at UITP 2025:
- Karos is transforming commuting by turning empty car seats into shared rides.
- Meep integrates transport modes—from metro to bike-share—into a single app for seamless travel.
- Nemi delivers demand-responsive transit in low-density areas, reducing car dependency.
- PANTOhealth applies AI to monitor rail infrastructure, cutting maintenance costs and preventing faults.
- Parabol offers smart mobility planning tools that adapt services to real-time demand.
These startups exemplify how innovation in public transport can increase service efficiency, reduce emissions, and enhance accessibility.
On top of this, Judith O’Meara, Head of Innovation Hub Central EIT Urban Mobility, joined the side event of the Deutscher Verkehrsunternehmen (VDV) (Association of German Transport Companies) to highlight the link between the EU and national authorities in the mobility sector.
Beyond technology, EIT Urban Mobility used the summit to spotlight a critical issue: non-exhaust emissions (NEEs)—from brakes, tyres, and road wear—are now the dominant source of particulate pollution from road transport, even in EVs. A joint study with Transport for London and the Greater London Authority showed NEEs account for up to 88% of PM10 in cities like London. The most effective mitigation? Shifting from private cars to public and active transport.
Backing this, EIT Urban Mobility’s latest cost-benefit analysis reveals every €1 invested in sustainable urban transport returns up to €2.50 in health, equity, and environmental benefits. The shift away from car use delivers emissions reductions five times greater than electrification alone.
EIT Urban Mobility also co-hosted the UPPER Project Showcase, introducing a Horizon Europe initiative aiming to increase public transport usage by over 30% in 10 European cities. The project, coordinated with UITP, demonstrates how scalable public transport innovation and policy measures can be rapidly implemented across diverse urban contexts.
